Well this is certainly a big step. A bill which would ban the sale of petrol and diesel powered vehicles by 2025 has passed the lower house of Dutch parliament, supported by Partij van de Arbeid (PvdE), the Dutch party of labour. Only sustainable, zero-emission vehicles will be available for sale.
As you might imagine, there’s some pushback. Some Dutch industries think its infeasible to move their fleets away from diesel, and many conservative politicians believe it just can’t be implemented. “It seems crazy to get this plan to work. I think we’ll have to withdraw from the Energy Agreement” said coalition partner leader Halbe Zijlstra.
But PvdE leader Diederik Samsom disagrees, and reckons it’ll be a very feasible transition. “That agreement runs until 2023, we are free in what we do after that. We are ambitious, perhaps other parties are less so”, he told a Dutch broadcaster.
The Dutch are definitely ahead of the curve when it comes to electric vehicle adoption: in 2015, 9.6% of new vehicle purchases were electric cars.
Source: DutchNews.
Photo: Getty Images / Sean Gallup.
